For a very long time, I’ve always wanted to know exactly who was doing who and for how many jelly beans (Sorry, old joke between old friends).
I thought, “Wouldn’t it be nice to have a timeline of EVERYTHING polygamy related?” This is a composition of everything I found during my years of research compiling 3-5 different sources including several of the items I saw posted on here. I meant to post this much earlier today, but then D. Michael Quinn’s rebuttal to Brian Hale was posted and I HAD to include what I could from there.
The point is, I want this timeline to be the ultimate go to source for everything polygamy related. And I thought that Latter-Day mainstreet would want access to this treasure trove of information
Wow, very cool!
Consider The EX-Mormon
The big secret is no longer capable of being ignored. It’s too big.
“Members Leaving Mormon Church in Droves”
“Pace increasing”
There is a whole new body of persons increasing in significant numbers in and about the great Utah Church. They can no longer be ignored.
Members are requesting the removal of their names from the membership records of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in alarming numbers according to patriarchal hierarchy of the church.
Mormon Elder Marlin Jensen, official historian for the church, told Reuters, “. . . attrition has accelerated in the last five or 10 years.â€
A whole department has mushroomed in Salt Lake City church offices dedicated to the purpose of processing the names of people who no long want their identities associated with Mormonism.
However, you don’t just call and say, “Hey. I’m outta here. Write me gone.†Resigning requires specific information or the church cannot find your records or process them. There are dozens of Internet sites providing exact instructions with form letters you can down load for just that purpose. Merely Google “Leaving the Mormon church,†and your biggest problem is which Internet site to choose.
Literally hundreds of Internet sites exist dedicated to Life After Mormonism and/or Post Mormonism or anything along those lines. Any combination of words with Ex- Mormon in them will connect you with web sites by the goggle-de-gross. Google the name of a city or state put ex-Mormon next to it and you will find yourself connected to a local group of people who think for themselves and meet a given number of times a year for companionship and merriment.
If you are a Mormon and you have decided that you no longer want to be a Mormon what do you do, where do you look for assistance? Merely walking away is possible and many have done exactly that, but no matter your exit strategy it’s not that easy. You are faced with choices you have not had to make before. Your previous cultural values – some or most – don’t work for you anymore and you don’t yet have a complete replacement set. You have reached the rank of someone who stands for something in-and-of-your-own-right and you are on the edge of finding out what it is. You are an independent thinker, own your own mind, and the path you’re walking is uniquely yours, but . . . leaving the church is like wrestling with razor wire. Guilt and fear, obedience and loyalty have been conditioned deep.
The good part is you don’t have to go it alone. Many, having made the same journey, have actually dedicated their lives to assist you. The betrayal and abandonment is so emotionally violent it produces a classic PTSD syndrome. Reaching out, assisting other is part of the healing process.
It is a unique kind of stress that demands processing. Writing, spelling out the experience, helps. There are thousands of transition stories. Authoring those stories is processing the experience, yes, but it also answers the empathic urge to reach out to those who are experiencing that same pain. The right to own your own mind plucks a respondent chord in those of us who have already made the journey. They have written important books.
Let me recommend a few: Exit Strategies by Micah McAllister, An American Fraud by Kay Burningham, The Mormon Delusion, five volums by Jim Whitefield, and anything by the granddaddy of all things Mormon and ex-Mormon Richard Packham.
Ask any ex-Mormon, “Would you do it again?â€
Answer: “The only thing I would change is when. If I knew then what I know now I would have left the church much sooner.â€
Ask any ex-Mormon, “What have you learned?â€
Answer: “It was hard. I had nothing to equate it to. Today, no one tells me what is right or wrong for me, but me. I would do it again in a New York minuteâ€
Ask any gay ex-Mormon, “Did you consider suicide?â€
Answer: “I think we all do at some point. Today there is a plausible alternative. We don’t have to put up with tired traditions. Leaving the church is the better solution.â€
Some blame the Internet. Blame who you want. There is a whole new body of persons increasing in significant numbers in and about the Utah monolith. The numbers grow and it is not gays alone that are swelling the ranks.
EX-Mormon’s have become a strong political force, no grandiosity intended. No grandiosity allowed.
Michael — if you have content from your site that is relevant to a particular discussion here, it is better to link to it with a short explanation of the link, rather than copy-pasting the whole page of text.
If you would like us to include a link or announcement about your book or site, please email me: chanson dot exmormon at gmail dot com.
I’m doing a (mostly) timeline based history of the early church (“Mormonism: The Big Con”) on my Grumbles From an Old Grouch blog (grumblesfromanoldgrouch.com).
It’s snark filled and not totally complete, but there are dates, events and names (with links and attribution) not usually found in any of the church’s lists. You’re welcome to steal what you need. I did!
😉
@4 looks interesting! I’ll add you to Outer Blogness.